Instytut im. Jerzego Grotowskiego - 3rd Summer School of Studio Kalari

3rd Summer School of Studio Kalari

Leaders: Sankar Lal Sivasankaran Nair (Studio Kalari) and Agnieszka Kapelko

Tue-Wed 3–11 July
Brzezinka, the forest base of the Grotowski Institute

The Summer School will offer classes in the martial art of kalarippayattu (Southern style) and the dance bharatanatyam. Despite their different character, these two forms of spiritual and artistic expression have much in common: power, dynamism, energy, co-ordination, beauty and precision.

For beginners the school will provide an introduction to two very rich systems. The more advanced students will have an opportunity to develop and deepen their skills.

Bharatanatyam
The aim of the workshop will be to teach the basic elements of the codified language of symbols that bharatanatyam is. The workshop will include instruction in basic steps (Adavu), basic postures (Mandala Bheda), gesture language, the abstract dance (Nritta) and the narrative dance (Nritya). Participants will practice miming, hand movements, steps and dance postures.

Agnieszka Kapelko graduated from the Institute of the Middle and Far East at the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. She started training bharatanatyam in 2004 in the city of Gokarna, Karnataka, India, with Ms. Rajeshwari S. Hande. In 2009 she passed a government-administered bharatanatyam dance exam at the Institute of Art
Gandharva Mahavidyalay in Mumbai, India, and obtained a Praveshika Purna Certificate. She is currently a student of the renowned dancer Prof. Kalaimamani Sailaja, the founder of the Saila Sudha School of Dance in Chennai, and continues to improve her dancing skills during regular visits in India. She teaches bharatanatyam, performs, and collaborates with the Natyalaya ensemble. In 2011 she founded the Indian dance group Mayura.

Kalarippayattu
Participants will learn the first few sequences of movements (cuvadukal), practice spinning the sarira vathi stick, and engage in strengthening and stretching exercises. Particular emphasis will be put on precision, co-ordination and body awareness.

Sankar Lal Sivasankaran Nair, photo by Maciej Zakrzewski

Sankar Lal Sivasankaran Nair is a Kalarippayattu teacher and certified Ayurvedic massage therapist born in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Sankar started studying the Southern style of kalarippayattu in 1990. His masters have included Tirupuram C. Madhavan (Anjaneya Kalari Sangham), Jayachandran Nair (Kerala School of Martial Arts), Thankappan Assan and Ajith Kumar (Maruthi Marma Chikilsa Kalari Sangham and Ayurveda). Currently his master is Raja Gopalan Assan. Between 2005 and 2008 he worked with Milón Méla, an Indian theatre group, co-conducting numerous workshops and performing at festivals across India and Europe. In 2008 he moved to Wrocław, Poland. Sankar teaches Southern Kalarippayattu (he runs regular classes in Wrocław, as well as workshops in Poland and abroad, among others in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and India) and practices Ayurvedic massage. He is a co-founder of Studio Kalari.

Schedule
3 July (afternoon): travel from Wrocław to Brzezinka
4–10 July:

7:30am–9am bharatanatyam
9:30am breakfast
10:30am–12:30pm kalarippayattu
1pm lunch
3pm–5pm bharatanatyam
6pm–8pm kalarippayattu
8:30pm dinner

11 July (morning): return to Wrocław

Contact and enrolment
To enrol for the School, please send your completed application form to Justyna Rodzińska-Nair at studio@studiokalari.art.pl by 10 June 2013 (tel. +48 509 345 995). The number of places is limited.

Fee
• Both kalarippayattu and bharatanatyam classes: 215 EUR*/350 EUR
• Kalarippayattu classes only: 170 EUR*/270 EUR
• Bharatanatyam classes only: 155 EUR*/250 EUR
* For participants from Central and Eastern Europe

The fee includes: work sessions, travel from Wrocław to Brzezinka and from Brzezinka to Wrocław, food and lodging in Brzezinka (participants will prepare meals and clean the working space).

Please transfer the appropriate fee by 10 June 2013, to the bank account listed below, using “Studio Kalari Summer School 2013” as a reference.

Account holder:
The Grotowski Institute, Rynek-Ratusz 27, 50-101 Wrocław, Poland
Bank: PKO BP SA
SWIFT: BPKOPLPW
IBAN: PL 98 1020 5226 0000 6602 0416 7565

Photo galleries from Summer Schools in:
2011 / 1st Summer School of Studio Kalari
2012 / 2nd Summer School of Studio Kalari